Retroist Podcast – Episode 094 – Zork

On today’s show we talk all about the groundbreaking text adventure game, Zork. We talk about how it was made, the people behind it, how to play and much much more. For those with Java on their computer, who have never played Zork or who just want a refresher, I suggest you check out the aptly titled website, Play Infocom Adventures Online.

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12 thoughts on “Retroist Podcast – Episode 094 – Zork”

Hmm I never actually played any pure text adventure games. I always was playing things like Kings Quest and what not. I did play Return To Zork but that was well past the point of them being pure text. I can totally understand why that might appeal but I can hardly imagine staring for hours at those old screens like that. Reading to much on a computer really strains my eyes. Nice show, I enjoyed it.

Zork really is an acquired taste. Because there were no graphics, it was simply you, your keyboard, and your imagination. But there is the true genius with all of the old Infocom games, and most great horror film – your imagination will always build things for you much more vividly than any computer graphics ever will. I agree with you that when the Zork games went graphical, it was a major let down.

Ask any two people who played any of the Zork games what a grue looked like and you will always get totally different answers because it was up to the person what they looked like.

The puzzles in most text adventures are the very reason why so few of them have ever been fully completed! These puzzles are some of the hardest you are likely to ever come up against. Making them even more difficult was the limited parser. I was constantly slamming my fists into the keyboard when I would type in something that seemed so obvious to me, but the stupid parser would say “I don’t know how to do that”.

So when you were able to defeat some of the puzzles it truly felt like you had done something. I very rarely get that feeling when playing today’s games. Also lacking in today’s games is truly great storytelling, but that is what really drove people to text adventures. I truly miss how these Zork games pulled you into their world.

I have written a couple of text adventures and let me tell you, a LOT of work went into those early ones! I think for the most part, text adventures fall under the “you had to be there” umbrella. Some of us who experienced them the first time around still enjoy them, but it’s hard to get kids who grew up with the PlayStation to give text adventures a second glance.

Played color console games in the living room, but when we got a C64, I got Suspended and Michael Crichton’s Amazon and moved to the bedroom with an old B&W telly so I could stare at that screen for as long as I needed without interference.

There’s still a thriving (somewhat underground) community for this type of stuff. You can get interpretors for modern computers, then download the game files & play them. There are also publishing programs for people who want to write their own, and archives of such self-published/homebrew games.

Hi there. Just discovered the podcast and the website while researching for Zork on the web. I never actually played until just yesterday. Got confess that reading “Ready Player One” was what made me go after Zork. And I really liked it.

I was just out of high school when Zork was released. My brother introduced me to this game. We used to play it together and try to solve the puzzles. My brother, who is six years older than me, was mad and somewhat disgusted with himself when I solved something he couldn’t. Good times when you can out play your older brother.